624 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



tion. I boiled all my frames, hives, bottom-boards, 

 and covers, and am using- them now. 



From the two hives, in two years I have increas- 

 ed to ten. We get little surplus honey in this 

 neig'hborhood until the latter part of August; very 

 little, if any, white clover is grown here. I got 

 about 200 lbs. of extracted honey jier hive last fall, 

 mostly from goldenrod, I think. Bees have to be 

 fed in May. I tried a rather odd experiment in 

 feeding this spring, which I will give you for what 

 it is worth. As farmers will, sometimes, I got very 

 short of sugar, and did not have time to go to town 

 after more; but the bees must be fed. So I reason- 

 ed, that, as new milk is good for man and beast, 

 why not for bees? I fed the colonics that were in 

 the greatest need about a teacupful each, daily, 

 for nearly a week, of new milk, made quite sweet 

 with about a tablespoonful of sugar. The bees 

 drank it eagerly, and cleaned the platter before it 

 had time to sour. But although I looked the 

 frames over several times, I could see nothing like 

 milk in the cells. What did they do with it? 



M. H. Panton. 



Oak Hill, Clay Co., Kan., June -'«, 1886. 



Friend P., your suggestion about feeding 

 the bees milk is a valuable one; and since 

 you mention it, I recall that this same sub- 

 ject was talked of a good many years ago, 

 and it was then thought that milk assist- 

 ed very materially in brood-rearing, at times 

 when little or no pollen was to be had. I 

 think it (luite likely, that where bees are in 

 a starving condition, or pretty near it, dur- 

 ing a dearth of honey in the summer months, 

 milk might often in many homes be the 

 clieapest food that could be given them un- 

 til honey came again ; and I am inclined to 

 think they can be easily taught to take new 

 milk, right from the cows, without any 

 sweetening at all. Have any of our readers 

 ever tried it? 



HAVING STUDENTS IN APICULTURE. 



MHS. CHADU(JCK S EXPERIENCE WITH EM. 



fHIS summer I am having a student to learn 

 bee-keeping. 1 never advertised for students, 

 and I do not want them. I have no time for 

 it. So when this young woman came to me 

 to learn bee-keeping I tried to put her off, 

 but she persisted. I gave her a coi^ of Gleanings, 

 the A. B. J., and V. B. J. to read, and went to sleep. 

 When I awoke, throe hours later, she said, " I can't 

 make head nor tail of this stuff. It's all Heddon and 

 Doolittle, reversible hives, queens, broodings, and 

 lawsuits." 



" Oh! well," said I, " keep on; and when you have 

 read these pa])ers for tlfteen years you will begin 

 to see the point." 



"But," said she, "1 want to know how to do to 

 get lots of honey; I want to make money." 



"And," said I, " that is just what Heddon and 

 Doolittle arc all the time writing about." 



"Well," said she, "I think I had better begin 

 somewhere. This looks as if we were taking the 

 flsh in the middle and swallowing both ends at once. 

 Isn't there any beginning to bee-keeping?" 



" Yes," I answered, " there's plenty of beginning; 

 there's Root's A B C," and I turned over and went 

 to sleep again- Next morning she followed mo out 

 among the bees; and after looking round awhile 



she asked which were the Simplicity hives. I told 

 her and she put it down in a note-book. I told her 

 that note-books were no good; but that if she want- 

 ed to help she had better get on a bee-hat, and help 

 me carry away a few old colonies that needed mov- 

 ing. She came back presently, hatted and gloved, 

 and with sleevcb tied down. We picked up a Sim- 

 plicity hive, bottom-board and all, and started; Init 

 just then a t)ee stung hcv <in the ankle; she scream- 

 ed, and said she must set the hive down; she woiihl 

 let it fall, she knew she would; but 1 siiid, " If you 



let it fall I'll ," and she held on till we had it in 



the right place. Her ankle and foot swelled uj) 

 tight, so that she could not walk any for three days. 

 I told her she could quit the student business at any 

 time, but that, if she iiretended to help, she i(U(«f 

 help, and not wesiken when the tug of war canu!. 



1 am selling comb hoii<'.\' at 10 cts. a pound, where 

 a man lakes a whole box, or 12' i for a lew pounds. 

 Good honey is selling in the same nuirket for sct'cu 

 centK. J t is. just ax r/ood honey as mine, but it is in 

 the old-fashioned honey-boxes, each one weighing 

 from 1.5 to 20 lbs. I have three towns to sell in, be- 

 sides the country folks. If I take honey anywhere, 

 and the man who is selling it has half a box on hand, 

 I do not leave it but haul it home again; and when 

 he is./usf out I take it back again. The best plan is 

 not to take it till they ask for more. People will 

 buy honey when it is nearly gone, who won't buy 

 out of a full box. If there seems to be jilenty, they 

 say, "Oh, yes! I'll get some one of these days;" but 

 if it is nearly gone, they are afraid that it will be 

 all gone soon, so they buy it then. I think people 

 often kill their own market by piling too much 

 honey on it at once. Maiiala B. Cfiaddock. 



Vermont. III., July, 1881). 



Why, Mrs. C, how in the world did you 

 get to go into the "student"" biisinessV It 

 is not long since you were going to hire out 

 to drive a mule team. I suppose the young 

 lady is still studying— at least, you don't say 

 she went home and gave it up. Why didn't 

 you start a wagon, such as we pictured last 

 month? You could liave the nnile team to 

 draw it around ; and when you get a whole 

 class of students, yon could have them do 

 all the work while you simply superintend. 

 If, you sell the honey at such low prices, 

 however, of course your students would 

 have to work for nothing, and board them- 

 selves ; or, still worse, pay you something 

 for teaching them so patiently. 



HONEY-DEW. 



IKJW TO GET IT OUT OK HONEV-BOXE.S. 



E have had an excellent season for bees to 

 build up on. White clover was more abun- 

 dant than at anj' previous season— so much 

 so we procured a little surplus from it; but 

 before I was aware, my bees were storing 

 honey-dew in the sections that had been nearly till- 

 ed from white clover. Of course, I wanted that out, 

 and tried an experiment which proved successful 

 in my case, but would probably be too laborious for 

 one M'ho has a large apiary, and wants no more in- 

 crease, and who has a large amount of this honey 

 stored in sections. 



I first extracted all the honey from a set of frames 

 goptaining unsealed brood, and placed them in an 



